LONGMONT -- The day after a 24 hours that no one around here will ever forget, 18 percent of the 7,200 households that were evacuated in Longmont were allowed to return to their homes Friday. About 1,300 households in the Willow Creek and Renaissance neighborhoods in the southwest corner of town were allowed back in, with the understanding they would be subject to re-evacuation should weather conditions change and the flooding in the city worsen.

That's good news for them, but the news for the remaining 5,900 households is not so good. Those neighborhoods that remain evacuated are that way because they have either been flooded to some extent or are in great danger of becoming so, according to city emergency manager Dan Eamon. He estimated that the earliest that people in those neighborhoods will be let back in is Monday, and that's if the weather doesn't turn nasty, which it is supposed to do, again, this weekend.

The National Weather Service is calling for only a 30 percent chance of showers or thunderstorms in Longmont on Saturday, then a 40 percent chance of showers or thunderstorms overnight Saturday night. Sunday's forecast is for a chance of showers until 9 a.m., then the possibility of thunderstorms moving in throughout the rest of the morning. Sunday afternoon into evening, showers and/or thunderstorms are "likely." The forecast is similar for the Front Range mountains west of Longmont.

"We're really going to be watching that Sunday storm," Eamon said.

Friday's brief sunshine can give people the impression that the worst is over, warned city manager Harold Dominguez, but that's not necessarily the case. Besides, he said, it's not the rain on the plains that's causing all the problems; it's the rain that falls in the mountains west of the city.

Wet, wild destruction

The city's Emergency Operations Center has been activated since 2:30 a.m. Thursday and will continue to be until at least Monday, Eamon said.

Aside from the 50-or-so people working in the EOC, first responders also have been putting in long hours and spent much of Friday continuing to do rescues of people who either didn't evacuate their homes when first ordered to or sneaked back in and found themselves trapped.

The city was no longer cut in half, as it was briefly Thursday night into Friday, but the city's main north-south routes -- Main, Hover and Sunset streets and Airport Road -- remain closed and may be for some time, officials said.

A woman takes photos of a partially washed-out bridge on County Line Road south of Colo. Highway 119 Friday. (Matthew Jonas/Times-Call)

The Sunset Street bridge just north of Izaak Walton Park has been mostly washed away. As the land is part of an enclave not annexed into the city, that will be Boulder County's responsibility to rebuild.

East of Longmont, the bridge at County Line Road south of Colo. Highway 119 had huge chunks of it taken out by the violent flood water Thursday, the St. Vrain River swollen to about a half-mile wide and flowing fiercely at that point through the rural landscape.

Don Fetters, who lives in a home just north of the river off County Line, said his house -- which he just moved into in April as his retirement home -- sits on high ground so it isn't in any danger. But his property was heavily damaged.

Kim Rapp of Longmont takes photos of the flooding St. Vrain River from the Martin Street bridge Friday in Longmont.
(
Matthew Jonas
)

"Right now I've lost over 60 trees -- big cottonwoods, just ripped out," Fetters said, estimating that everything within 200 feet of the normal riverbank had been destroyed.

"I've never seen it like this," he said. "When I bought this place I saw the trees and the rocks holding the bank back and I never thought it would go over."

But the river will go where the river will go, as Longmont Police Cmdr. Jeff Satur learned in a flyover of the St. Vrain he took earlier in the day Friday.

"There were sections of (the St. Vrain's normal route) that were completely dry because the water had found an alternate route," said Satur, who flew over the river from County Line all the way to Lyons.

Satur said it's one thing to see the devastating floodwaters of the St. Vrain and Left Hand Creek from ground level. It's an entirely different scene from the air.

"It was really hard for me to get a feel for how much water was in the area," Satur said. "I was just surprised at how much water there was west of the city.

"It just looked like a lot of ponds west of the city -- pond after pond after pond."

Within the city limits, the bird's eye view allowed him to reassess some of the earlier evacuation orders, Satur said, which is why residents of the Willow Creek and Renaissance neighborhoods were allowed to return home.

Satur cautioned that as evacuation orders are lifted, people should be cautious re-entering their neighborhoods and homes. Watch for downed power lines, he said, and those without electricity should call Longmont Power & Communications. Residents who smell gas should leave their residence immediately and call Xcel Energy. It may take some time for either of those agencies to respond, however, so people should be prepared to be patient, he said. He also said it would be unsafe at this time for people to fire up generators.

Satur said the overhead flight showed that the hardest hit residential neighborhoods were those east of Airport Road between Ninth Avenue and Mountain View Avenue near Twin Peaks Golf Course. A lot of water coming from the Hygiene area followed the track of the railroad, and once it flowed past Airport Road it flooded those neighborhoods to the east.

Southmoor Park residents had to contend with an overflowing Left Hand Creek. Satur said it appeared that homes closest to the creek on both the north and south sides were most affected.

Infrastructure issues continue

Longmonters awoke Friday to a divided city -- with all north-south routes closed -- but that changed by late morning as Colo. Highway 119 between Main Street and East Third Avenue was reopened. That allowed travel between the north and south portions of the city where East Third Avenue meets 119.

About 2,000 Longmont Power & Communications customers were without power as of Friday night. Spokeswoman Deb Cameron said crews were working as hard as they could to restore power but there are some areas they still could not get to because of high water.

Dale Rademacher, director of public works and natural resources, also went airborne Friday and made a visual inspection of Button Rock Dam above Lyons, which holds the city's Ralph Price Reservoir. City spokesman Rigo Leal said Rademacher reported that Button Rock was fine, saying the spillway was rated to handle up to 30,000 cubic feet per second and it was flowing at 3,000 to 4,000 cfs.

Bob Allen, operations manager for public works, said late Friday that the city's water treatment plant was operating normally. The city's drinking water was being pulled from its Carter Lake pipeline, which gets most of its water from the western slope.

The city's wastewater treatment plant was back up and operating on Friday, Allen said, "but the treatment capabilities are significantly diminished." One of the main reasons for that is the amount of sediment being carried by the flood that makes it into the plant, gumming up the works. High water is also affecting operations at the plant.

Dominguez said the city is remaining vigilant about its top priority, keeping people safe, but it's also preparing for what will happen once the clean-up begins.

"We're starting to see that there's a significant amount of work from an infrastructure standpoint," he said. " ... The emergency doesn't end with the water going down."

The city is doing everything it can to make those who have been evacuated comfortable, and will allow them back in as soon as they can, Dominguez said. But they won't be allowed to go home until city officials know it's safe for them.

Two evacuation centers are remaining open through the weekend. About 140 people spent Thursday night at the St. Vrain Memorial Building at Longs Peak Avenue and Coffman Street and at least that many stayed at Niwot High School, Eamon said.

Animals belonging to south-side evacuees have been taken to the Longmont Humane Society. The city is still working on finding a location where people on the north side can take their pets.

The city's Emergency Operations Center remains open. The city is asking residents to call 911 only in an emergency. Anyone with questions or something to report should call the EOC call center at 303-651-8595.

Eamon said he was extremely grateful to city staff, who have been putting in many long hours working in the EOC or helping at the shelters. He said he also wanted to thank the community members who have stepped up to offer help in so many ways.

In fact, Satur added, donations to the evacuation centers have exceeded the demand.

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